Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is an annual Swedish prize given to an author from any country who has produced outstanding work in an idealistic direction, in the words of Alfred Nobel. The Swedish Academy, composed of 18 life members, decides the recipient and announces the laureate in early October each year.
The Nobel Prize in Literature was established by the will of Alfred Nobel, signed on the 27th of November 1895 at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. Nobel bequeathed 94 percent of his assets, totaling 31 million Swedish kronor, to fund the five Nobel Prizes; the first literature prize was awarded in 1901.
Rudyard Kipling is the youngest Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. He was 41 years old when he received the prize in 1907.
Doris Lessing is the oldest Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, having received the prize in 2007 at the age of 88.
Nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature are kept confidential for at least 50 years before becoming publicly available. Only nominations submitted between 1901 and 1973 are available for public viewing in the Nomination Database.
As of 2021-16 of the 118 recipients were of Scandinavian origin, and Sweden alone has received 8 prizes, more than all of Asia (7) or all of Latin America (7). Critics including permanent secretary Peter Englund himself acknowledged that the Academy tends to relate more easily to literature written in Europe and the European tradition, while widely regarded writers from the Americas and Asia have been repeatedly overlooked.